It was another familiar drive over to Essex for the 4th and final qualifying round where our new team Chelmsford were hosting Aldershot Town from the dizzy heights of the National League.

Our squad was the same 5 as from the last round at Romford and so were not too overawed at the prospect of playing a side one tier higher having seen the Clarets thrash Romford with 5 second-half goals 2 weeks ago.

The Melbourne Park ground is a full-blown athletics stadium with a decent-sized seated stand along one side and curiously had mobile metal terracing behind one goal that can be wheeled away when hosting athletics. This meant fans were close to the goal line and not miles away behind the bend of the running track.

Two things were new to us on arrival; first of all a queue at the turnstiles and secondly around 5 police officers in attendance and so we knew we were going up in the football hierarchy. We pre-purchased tickets online complete with QR code, but the turnstile was manned and no QR scanner in sight; well at least they are on the right path.

Once inside the ground there was a very good clubhouse and an excellent mobile café serving the most amazing cheeseburger; a full 6 oz thick juicy burger – not 1 but 2 cheese slices which were melted when ordering by placing a metal pot over (never seen that before), onions of course and to cap it all was offered fresh salad of lettuce and tomato; delicious and so was worthy of the 9.0 score to take the lead so far on the FanFayre scoreboard. But then Chelmsford is bit posh!

The game started at the usual frenzied pace with Aldershot looking the more threatening but as Chelmsford grew more into the game, they took a deserved lead on 25 minutes when Charlie Ruff sprinted into the box and headed into the Aldershot goal from a precision Simeon Jackson pass.  “One Charlie Ruff, there’s only one Charlie Ruff”

Aldershot were looking for an equaliser with several chances as half-time approached but the mighty Ovie Ejeheri, who is currently on loan from Arsenal, kept the sheet clean, the most impressive being a finger-tip save over the bar just before the whistle.

We had great half-way line seats, but unfortunately no reserved seating so skipped the half-time refreshments so as not to lose them. We always do a “Guess the crowd” competition and it was clear to see we had probably tripled our previous highest attendance to date with what turned out to be a respectable 1,142 crowd.

As expected, Aldershot were fired up for the second half and early on forced another fantastic point-blank save from Clarets keeper Ejeheri but then it was Chelmsford adding a second on 60 minutes with Ochieng latching on to a cheeky back heel assist from Lodovica. The Shots finished strongly with several good chances missed or saved by Ejeheri but it was a great moment for the Chelmsford fans on the final whistle achieving passage into the 1st Round for the first time since 2012.

A great game with the Clarets collecting the £9,375 prize money for the win and having the excitement of the First-Round proper draw on Monday night. This is always a great Cup moment as the League 1 and League 2 Clubs enter the competition and so Chelmsford can spend the next few days dreaming for that once-in-a-lifetime clash against one of the famous Giants of the game currently languishing in the lower divisions; yes, the prospect of a glamour tie against the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County or Rochdale.